Escaping from Houdini - Becca In A Book

Summary

The journey and the dynamic mystery duo of Audrey Rose and Thomas continues and this time might be the end. They start investigating a series of murders on an ocean liner featuring a magical carnival and Audrey Rose starts to question everything about her life. Will they survive this mystery or will it end it more murder and ruin?

My Thoughts

HOLY MAGIC CIRCUS WAS THIS BOOK AMAZING!! I’m obsessed with this series and these characters and these books just keep getting better and better! The mystery and the glamour of the age just never gets old and the characters get more and more hilarious and loveable with each novel.

The setting of this book was so so SO COOL and it was perfect for this mystery circus. The author was so descriptive with everything from the food, to the costumes, to the amazing and magical show was a perfect balance. I usually am a little iffy about the description and beg for more dialogue or steam, but in this case, description was VERY necessary. The intricacy and uniqueness of the performances and costumes of the Moonlight Carnival was SO AMAZING and I would give my right arm to be a guest!

The plot of this book was a crazy CRAZY ride and it never really stopped until the last page of the book. There were so many laughs, so many steamy moments, so much illusion and magic, and the suspense was OFF the charts. The murders in this book were a lot more gruesome in comparison to the other books which was very surprising to me. I enjoyed that level of grossness because I’m a terrible person and I am fascinated with anything relatively morbid. I honestly had no idea who the culprit could be until the reveal. The author did such a wonderful job of adding suspicion towards so many different characters that I couldn’t choose the one responsible! I love when an author can stump me and she did it so well.

The characters grew more and more amazing, but I was just a tad frustrated with some of them in this one. Audrey Rose is such a great character and she seems more like a best friend to me at this point, but I WAS SO IRRITATED WITH HER! I wanted to hit her because she was stupid. I mean I understand why she was so conflicted and it almost seemed like she was having a mid-life crisis. She is a girl that wants more than what her Victorian English world will give her, but OMG THOMAS IS AMAZING, what are you doing?!?!

The banter between Thomas and Audrey Rose is always a hilarious addition to the novels and this book was no exception. However, THEY ADDED STEAM TO THE BANTER!!! I WAS SO HERE FOR IT AND I WAS SQUEALING IN HAPPINESS! BUT….. what was with that love triangle? I honestly thought it was so unnecessary and it pissed me off. I mean I got that Mephistopheles was super seductive and sexy, but come on THOMAS WILL ALWAYS REIGN SUPREME!

Another thing that annoyed me was Liza. OMG SHE IS SO ANNOYING, I CAN’T HANDLE! I don’t understand why I don’t like her, but she just rubs me the wrong way and just bleh! I think Mrs. Harvey is a better friend for Audrey Rose and I would drink her traveling tonic with her over Liza any day!

That ending was such a crazy heart attack and I thought I was going to lose my mind! That second to last chapter scared the POOP out of me and I thought my heart was going to shatter into a million pieces. However, at the last minute everything was fine, but DAMN I thought it was all over for a second. Good job Ms. Maniscalco!